[Avodah] Our Attitude towards Segulos

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger wrote:

> But this is saying that HQBH does this without stepping
> beyond teva. The complexity of what we experience will
> always be at least a little beyond our ability to explain
> it.

> Which is why I again see no need to posit a second system,
> one which the person would have to first be a maamin to even
> accept the basics of. Haniglos lanu ulvaneinu... vehaAretz
> nasan livnei adam... etc... We're given the power to
> engineer based on physics, not metaphysics.

> So I do not see how one can simply posit it's in the same
> role. Again, two distinct reasons:
> - why bother having two sets of laws serving the same purpose?
> - why have laws that aren't given to man as nigleh/aretz
> for us to work and plan with?

I'm not sure of your main point. Do you feel that there are two systems, two groups of laws, the nigleh and the nistar? Or do you feel that they are all one?

My feeling is that there is but one group. HaShem set up all the laws of teva in the beginning, and chooses to abide by them ever since. The only difference between the nigleh laws and the nistar laws, is that we understand the former, but we do not understand the latter. At least, not *yet*.

(Disclosure: I'm actually uncertain about this. It is possible that HaShem does indeed change things as time goes on. It is possible that a hundred years ago, an electron truly was the smallest object, and that HaShem did not introduce quarks until later. But that's a discussion for another thread.)

But the question of your last line is still valid:

> - why have laws that aren't given to man as nigleh/aretz
> for us to work and plan with?

In other words, why did HaShem put certain laws into the running of the physical universe, and hide them from us? Because it is our job on this earth to discover them.

I'd like to mention some laws, and please consider whether they were given to man as nigleh:

--- E=mc^2

--- Inertia

--- Gravity

--- To every force there is an equal an opposite reaction.

I feel these are good examples of things which were very very nistar, and became nigleh only after very protracted study and experimentation.

Regarding the third of those, for how long did people believe that heavy objects fall faster than light ones? (I'll give you a clue: In 1971, people watched breathlessly as the commander of Apollo 15, on the surface of the moon, dropped a hammer and a feather simultaneously, on live tv.)

Regarding the fourth, I'd like to remind the audience how the last of these was very hotly debated. Many physicists held that a rocket would not propel an object in a vacuum, for lack of any air for the rocket to push against.

I think it is an error to consider these to be two distinct sets.

In reality, it seems to me, all of these laws are in a single group: Originally nistar, it is Man's job to discover them and use them. Mil'u es haaretz v'kivshuha. Figure out how it works, and get it to work well.

I don't know how much of this was given as nigleh to Adam Harishon. He must have gotten something, else how could he have understood the animals well enough to name them? But there was also a lot he did not know, or quickly forgot, or did not pass on. All this was (or became) the nistar.

I'll close with two examples of laws which AFAIK are still in the nistar category: Leaving a sefer open causes forgetfulness, and a woman walking on fingernails causes a miscarriage. (If you don't like those for any reason, feel free to substitute the red rotel or your favorite bubba maaseh.)

Who's to say that these are metaphysical? Perhaps the day is not far off when we'll learn their workings. Maybe we could at least demonstate them statistically today, if only we could isolate the interference and get a truly double-blind test. (Well, causing miscarriages is pretty dangerous, but you know what I mean.)

Indeed, as RMB quoted Arthur C. Clarke,
> Any sufficiently advanced technology is
> indistinguishable from magic.

I have little doubt that R' Elya Lopian was mechaven to that when he compared broken letters in a mezuza to broken wires of a radio. That one is now useless for music, and this one is now useless for shmirah.

Akiva Miller

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